Border Towns Struggle To Protect Water Infrastructure

Updated: Friday, January 10 2014, 03:59 PM CST

by Neena Satija, The Texas Tribune

More than 600 children in a South Texas border town may be prevented from returning to school on Monday because of a long-standing dispute over water rates, which have skyrocketed in recent years amid attempts to make badly needed upgrades to the town's water infrastructure.

Several attempts at negotiation between the city of La Villa and the La Villa Independent School District have failed, after the district refused to pay more than $50,000 in overdue water bills and the city cut off its water service. School officials say they are being charged too much for water from a mismanaged utility, while the city contends that it needs money to cover millions of dollars in needed repairs to water and sewer treatment systems.

Beyond the political and financial tussle, the situation illustrates the struggles facing the small Texas border towns that operate the treatment plants that supply drinking water and clean up wastewater.

"Basically, it's planning and lack of money, and lack of management," said Carlos Acevedo, a senior project manager for the Border Environment Cooperation Commission, a binational agency charged with improving environmental conditions along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Towns like La Villa, with fewer than 2,000 people, often have high turnover rates in city and utility leadership positions. Between one project and the next, management may have changed -- along with the politics of the situation. Acevedo said the BECC has tried for years to persuade La Villa and its neighboring towns, Elsa and Edcouch, to connect their water and wastewater plants into one system, but local politics and changing players got in the way. The towns even argued over where the regional facilities should be located.

"If they don't want to participate in a joint effort, we can do nothing," Acevedo said.

La Villa City Manager Wilfredo Mata, who has been on the job for a year, doesn't disagree that the city suffers from serious infrastructure problems. But regionalization wont solve the cost issue, he said.

"It's still going to cost the same amount of dollars, and were still going to pay it," Mata said. "You have an aging, antiquated system thats going to need a substantial amount of money to repair and replace."

Excerpt from:
Border Towns Struggle To Protect Water Infrastructure